The Early Days
by Seoulite
Summary: A young Plutarch Heavensbee explores the early history of the Hunger Games.


"…the most striking thing you'll notice is that when they lift the barrier, they just stand around for a while. A few people collapse. Then the guy in the blue shirt runs for the weapons cache up the hill, and then things get pretty violent," she explained,

_0h:07m:21s_

_Play_

"The action's kind of crummy, though. A few people died at the initial fighting, sure, but see, here, this guy's too scared to finish it. There he goes. Into Cave #3, the other guy has a nasty puncture wound in the stomach, he crawls around for a while before the District 4 girl slits his throat. There, third casualty," she said.

She pursed her lips. "Obviously, this was not too long after the Rebellion ended, there weren't any trained killers in the arena."

"They were the district governors' kids, right? That was briefly mentioned in some of the older material I've read, but they never went into the details," he said. "Why was that?"

"During a negotiation right before the war ended, a governor took our diplomatic personnel hostage, what was left of them, anyway, when he received news that a key nuclear missile silo had been captured," she said. "District 13 was slowly inching away from the conflict, and undoubtedly he was in desperate state of mind, since the diplomats' kids were taken hostage too."

"Oh," he said. "Nuclear missiles?" he asked.

"Big rockets with a nuclear warhead. Those can destroy a city in a single explosion and contaminate the air and the soil for decades to come. Pretty destructive, not something the President wants the general public to think about. The knowledge isn't classified, but you won't find many people familiar with old Federal technology around here."

"Do we have any of those?" he asked.

"Only the ones we took from the District 13 silos, and there are some old Federal silos we're pretty sure still contain nuclear warheads," she said. "We've been looking into those, but they're deep underground, and we don't want to trigger any safety measures."

"What happened to the kids?"

"They didn't make it. Public opinion was murderous at the time. They were all from very well-connected families, you see," she said, absent-mindedly watching the female from District 4 enter Cave #3. She paused the video.

"So we had to do _something_ to appease the population, everybody was on edge back then with the war and all. So, in the beginning, the Games was more of a glorified mass lynching than anything else, but it was a good show. Didn't take long for someone to suggest making it a regular even, to keep them down."

_Pause_

_Eject_

The mentor handed him the storage drive.

"I want you to write a report on the psychological state of the participants of the First Hunger Games and its differences from the modern version of the event. The video footage I just gave you contains all the scenes, unedited, some not released to the public, uncensored. Take care not to lose it, Plutarch."

* * *

Plutarch Heavensbee, 20, is a student in one of the few elite academies in the Capitol whose student bodies will effectively constitute the ruling class of the Capitol, and thus, Panem, in the decades to come.

The weather is nice, and he decides to walk home, about half a mile away.

"Hey, Plutarch, did you hear about Haymitch Abernathy?" said one of his roommates, walking up to him.

"What about him?" he asked absentmindedly.

"He's developing a fondness for alcohol," snickered the roommate. "I'm hearing stories of bars smashed up, noses broken…"

"No wonder," replied Plutarch. "They didn't like that stunt with the axe. Killed off his girlfriend, didn't they? Personally, I won't be too surprised if he becomes the first victor since the 6th Games to kill himself."

"Victors used to kill themselves?"

"So the records say. I'm supposed to write a report about it later, it's going to be an interesting subject to research. Catch you later, Brutus."

Plutarch's voice through the conversation is not entirely friendly.

He had always been uncomfortable with the way the Capitol, as a society, celebrated death. It had always seemed not quite right.

The rest of his walk home is punctuated by gleeful yells and shouts from the playing children, and he finds it quite depressing.

* * *

_Phase I:_

_0:00:00: The games begin._

_0:00:04: Participant #2 and #5 faints, is unable to recover._

_0:00:11: #13 runs for the supply cache in Area 01. Rest of the participants shortly follow._

_0:01:14~: #13 acquires hand-axe, severely wounds participant #4, #6, and #11 before acquiring several packs of supplies before fleeing into one of the numerous caves that make up most of the arena._

_~1:05:21: Fighting continues intermittently around the initial supply cache. #4, #6, and #11 dies. #7 and #8, being from District 4, forms an alliance. #8 kills #1 after #7 is psychologically unable to harm #1, follows #8 into Area 03. Participant #2 and #5 killed by #6._

_Survivors: 1, 3, (7, 8), 9, 10, 12, 13_

_Deaths: 2, 4, 5, 6, 11_

* * *

_Phase II_

_**/* It can be noted that the earlier versions of the Hunger Games was significantly less organized and shorter in duration. Rate of participant death is quite extreme compared to the modern Games. */**_

_~2:05:21: #7 loses his glasses after a fall. #8, concerned about the loss of combat capability for #7, who is thirteen, decides to dismantle the alliance. #8 can be observed as having been significantly shaken after the act regardless of her traumatic, numbing experiences in the Rebellion._

_~3:21:03: #13 engages #1, #3, #9, #10, #12, in Cave 12, who have formed a very unstable alliance; #1 and #9 is wounded and #13 killed. #3 decides to put them out of their misery, #10 and #12 protests, #12 and #10 wounded severely, eventually bleeds to death._

_Survivors: 3, 8_

_Deaths: 1, 7, 9, 10, 12, 13_

* * *

_Phase III_

_**/* The final phase of the First Hunger Games came quite quickly due to the relatively small size of the arena; an abandoned underground Federal bomb shelter system. Designed to be a self-sufficient shelter for inhabitants in case of a nuclear war with other presumed nuclear powers, it was under construction when abandoned. */**_

_~6:01:22: #3 encounters #8 in Cave 05. #8 successfully strikes #3 with an improvised blunt weapon; #3 dies within minutes due to severe damage to the brain. #8 is declared the victor and granted amnesty._

* * *

'…_boring, crude, short, unrefined, less organized. The earlier Games certainly would not appeal to a modern audience. _

_A celebrity culture around the victors did not develop in the early decades due to the high suicide rate of the victors; the victor of the First Hunger Games suffered from immense guilt due to the slaying of a former friend from the same district and overdosed on morphling in what is believed to be a deliberate act._

_Reaping, sponsorship, quarter quells, feasts, and other formalized events would not become a staple feature for another several years…' –excerpt from final report_


End file.
